honour, I will again call it, between us; and all past offenses shall be forgiven; and Mr. Solmes, we will engage, shall take nothing amiss hereafter of what has passed.'"'!

"Hetty, your father is below.' She sprang to her feet. Will you see him?'

'Will I see him? Oh! Paul!'"s

When shall is robbed of the compulsory element by some other word or words in the context, it is correctly used in the second and the third person to express simple futurity. For example:

"But if ye shall at all turn from following me, ye or your children, and will not keep my commandments then will 1 cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them.”8

"He [Montezuma] begs only that when he shall relate his sufferings, you will consider him as an Indian prince.” 4

In these examples, "if" and "when," by introducing a conditional element, take away the idea of compulsion.

The rule of courtesy may easily be applied to sentences consisting of a principal and a dependent clause.

When both clauses have the same subject, there is no question of courtesy, for the matter is manifestly in the hands of the person or persons represented by the subject. In such cases, therefore, shall is, in all three persons, the proper auxiliary to express simple futurity, as, — " I think that I shall," "you think that you shall,” "he thinks that he shall."

When the two clauses have different subjects, the auxiliary to express futurity in the dependent clause is that which would be used if the clause in the same form were independent, as, "you think (or he thinks) that

-

Richardson: Clarissa Harlowe, vol. i. letter lx.

2 Walter Besant: Herr Paulus, chap. xix.

81 Kings, ix. 6, 7.

4 Dryden: The Indian Emperor; Dedication.

I shall,” “I think (or he thinks) that you will," "I think (or you think) that he will." The following sentences

“You, my dear,' said she, 'believe you shall be unhappy, if you have Mr. Solmes: your parents think the contrary; and that you will be undoubtedly so were you to have Mr. Lovelace.'” 1

In "you believe [that] you shall," "you believe" shows that the matter is in the hands of the person represented by the subject of both clauses, viz., Clarissa; shall is therefore correct. When, however, the subject of the principal clause changes to the parents, courtesy demands will in the dependent clause.

"And then he has got it into his head that you will never forgive him; and that he shall be cast in prison, if he shows his face in Cumberland." 2

"In Scripture," says Dr. Angus, "shall' is a common form of the future, where, if we were speaking of 'earthly things,' 'will' would be more suitable. . . . A human will is not in such cases the originating or controlling cause; thus, 'Thou shalt endure, and thy years shall not change: The righteous shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall wax stronger and stronger.' Of course these 'shalls' are sometimes wrongly empha sized, and are liable to be mistaken. But they are less. ambiguous than 'will' would be. They are to be read without emphasis, except when found in commands, or when representing verbs which imply obligation. They are simply future forms, intimating that the thing will be. Regular futures uninfluenced in form by human fears or courtesies or doubts, they may be called.” 3

The futures of which Dr. Angus speaks are not confined to Scripture. They may be used by any writer in

1 Richardson: Clarissa Harlowe, vol. ii. letter vi.

2 Charles Reade: Griffith Gaunt, chap. xliii.

Joseph Angus: Handbook of the English Tongue, chap. vi. 301.

speaking of that which is destined to take place, and into which therefore the idea of courtesy, or of discourtesy, does not enter. For example:

"The person who will bear much shall have much to bear all the world through." 1

Akin to the use of shall in speaking of what is destined to take place, is its use in the second and the third person to express a promise. For example:-

"You shall have gold

To pay the petty debt twenty times over." 2

"For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways."8

Will is by courtesy used for shall in official letters of direction, military orders, etc. :

WAR DEPARTMENT, August 28, 1861.

Colonel DAVID K. WARDWELL, Boston, Mass.

SIR, — You will report to his Excellency the Governor of Massachusetts, from whom you will receive instructions and orders in reference to the regiment which this Department has authorized you to raise.

By order of the Secretary of War,

JAMES LESLEY, Jr.,
Chief Clerk, War Department.

HIRAM KILBY, Esq., U. S. Attorney, New London, Ct.

SIR, - I enclose you a copy of a letter this day received by me from the Secretary of State.

You will be on the watch, and careful to see that the neutrality law is not violated.

Very respectfully, etc.

JAMES SPEED, Atty. Genl.

1 Richardson: Clarissa Harlowe, vol. i. letter x.

Shakspere: The Merchant of Venice, act iii. scene ii.

Psalm xci. 2.

↑ John A. Andrew: Addresses and Messages; Recruiting of Troops. House Doc. No. 18.

5 Alabama Claims: The Counter Case of the United States, part ii p. 9.

Should and would follow the same rules as shall and will, but they have in addition certain meanings peculiarly their own.

Should is sometimes used in its original sense of "ought," as in "You should not do that;" sometimes in a conditional sense, as in "Should you ask me whence these stories;"1 and after "lest," as in "He fled, lest he should be imprisoned."

Would is sometimes used to signify habitual action, as in "The 'Squire would sometimes fall asleep in the most pathetic part of my sermon; "2 and to express a wish, as, "Would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son !" 8

In the following sentences will and would are used incorrectly:

"Let the educated men consent to hold office, and we will find that in a few years there will be a great change in politics." 4

"As long as they continue to shun such a life, so long will we continue to have corruption and misery.”5

"Often a young man does not go to college, because he is afraid that he will be raised above his business."

“I would be very much obliged to you if you would see to this. I would hate to fail in this course." •

"I would not have wanted help, if the place had not been destroyed."7

"The rats were rather more mutinous than I would have expected; and if there had been shutters to that grated window, or a curtain to the bed, I should think it, upon the whole, an improvement."9

8

1 H. W. Longfellow: The Song of Hiawatha; Introduction.

2 Goldsmith: The Vicar of Wakefield, chap. i.

8 2 Samuel xviii. 33.

5 Student's theme.

6 Student's letter.

4 American newspaper.

7 A recent novel of Irish life.

Query about the sequence of tenses.

9 Scott: The Bride of Lammermoor, vol. i. chap. viii.

"This Siren song of ambition has charmed ears that we would have thought were never organized to that sort of music." 1

"Now, I would have thought that these were just the people who should have been the most welcome." 2

"She had a modest confidence that she would not lose her head."

Incorrect tenses.

spoken of.

X. Sometimes a writer uses a tense which does not indicate the time of the action or event

"It is only bare justice. to say that James might have made his way to the throne with comparative ease if he would only consent to change his religion and become a Protestant." 4

"If a change of administration is produced by the first movements of the House of Commons, as I think it probably will,5 and I refuse to take office, or if, having been present at first, I went away, the attack upon me would be just the same.'

"In his subtle capacity for enjoying the more refined points of earth, of human relationship, he could throw the gleam of poetry or humour on what seemed common or threadbare; has a care for the sighs, and the weary, humdrum preoccupation of very weak people, down to their little pathetic gentilities,' even; while, in the purely human temper, he can write of death, almost like Shakspere.”

"Antithesis, therefore, may on many occasions be employed to advantage, in order to strengthen the impression which we intend that any object should make.” 8

"It was almost inevitable that divisions should have taken place.”

1 Burke: Speech at Bristol, 1780. Quoted in John Morley's 'Life of Burke," chap. iv. English Men of Letters Series.

2 A recent novel of New York life.

8 Mrs. Oliphant: Miss Marjoribanks, chap. xviii.

4 Justin McCarthy: A History of the Four Georges, vol. i. chap. i.

5 Is a word omitted here?

6 Earl Spencer, in a letter to Lord Holland: Le Marchant's "Life of Lord Althorp," chap. xxiii.

7 Pater: Appreciations; Charles Lamb.

8 Hugh Blair: Rhetoric, lect. xvii.

9 W. E. H. Lecky: History of England in the Eighteenth Century, vol. i. chap. iii.