_wert_." So Milton wrote, "If thou
_beest_ he."--_P. Lost_, B. i, l. 84. Likewise Shakspeare: "If thou _beest_
Stephano."--_Tempest_. This inflection of _be_ is obsolete: all now say,
"If thou _be_." But _wert_ is still in use, to some extent, _for both
moods_; being generally placed by the grammarians in the subjunctive only,
but much oftener written for the indicative: as, "Whate'er thou art or
_wert_."--_Byron's Harold_, Canto iv, st. 115. "O thou that _wert_ so
happy!"--_Ib._, st. 109. "Vainly _wert_ thou wed."--_Ib._, st. 169.

OBS. 3.--Dr. Lowth gave to this verb, BE, that form of the subjunctive
mood, which it now has in most of our grammars; appending to it the
following examples and questions: "'Before the sun, Before the Heavens,
thou _wert_.'--_Milton_. 'Remember what thou _wert_.'--_Dryden_. 'I knew
thou _wert_ not slow to hear.'--_Addison_. 'Thou who of old _wert_ sent to
Israel's court.'--_Prior_. 'All this thou _wert_.'--_Pope_. 'Thou, Stella,
_wert_ no longer young.'--_Swift_. Shall we, in deference to these great
authorities," asks the Doctor, "allow _wert_ to be the same with _wast_,
and common to the indicative and [the] subjunctive mood? or rather abide by
the practice of our best ancient writers; the propriety of the language,
which requires, as far as may be, distinct forms, for different moods; and
the analogy of formation in each mood; I _was_, thou _wast_; I _were_, thou
_wert_? all which conspire to make _wert_ peculiar to the subjunctive
mood."--_Lowth's Gram._, p. 37; _Churchill's_, p. 251. I have before shown,
that several of the "best ancient writers" _did not inflect_ the verb
_were_, but wrote "_thou were_;" and, surely, "the analogy of formation,"
requires that the subjunctive _be not inflected_. Hence "the propriety
which requires distinct forms," requires not _wert_, in either mood. Why
then should we make this contraction of the old indicative form _werest_, a
_solitary exception_, by fixing it in the subjunctive only, and that in
opposition to the best authorities that ever used it? It is worthier to
take rank with its kindred _beest_, and be called an _archaism_.

OBS. 4.--The chief characteristical difference between the indicative and
the subjunctive mood, is, that in the latter the verb is _not inflected at
all_, in the different persons: IND. "Thou _magnifiest_ his work." SUBJ.
"Remember that thou _magnify_ his work."--_Job_, xxxvi, 24. IND. "He _cuts_
off, _shuts_ up, and _gathe