Monday, June 4, 2012

moods and tenses

"Candid! Would you prefer discussing 'sacred fountains and groves?' "
Friend.—That, ingrate, was only to flatter a little, for once, your humor, your "mood,"—which, in all its tenses, I should call the doubtful.
(Scenes and Adventures in the Army)

"In the Missionary College at Lahainaluna, on Maui, one of the Sandwich Islands, I saw a tabular exhibition of a Hawaiian verb, conjugated through all its moods and tenses. It covered the side of a considerable apartment, and I doubt whether Sir William Jones himself would not have despaired of mastering it."  (Typee)
"Each conjugation will I curb,
All moods and tenses of the verb...."  (Clarel 2.3)

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