se in the subjunctive mood, is also _very frequently varied in its
termination_: as, 'If thou _loved_ him truly, thou wouldst obey
him.'"--_Murray's Gram._, 8vo, p. 209. "The auxiliaries of the potential
mood, when applied to the subjunctive, _do not change_ the termination of
the second person singular; as, 'If thou _mayst_ or _canst_ go.'"--_Ib._,
p. 210. "Some authors think, that the termination of these auxiliaries
_should be varied_: as, I advise thee, that thou _may_ beware."--_Ib._, p.
210. "When the circumstances of contingency and futurity concur, it is
proper _to vary_ the terminations of the second and third persons
singular."--_Ib._, 210. "It may be considered as a rule, that _the changes_
of termination _are necessary_, when these two circumstances
concur."--_Ib._, p. 207. "It may be considered as a rule, that _no changes_
of termination _are necessary_, when these two circumstances
concur."--_Ingersoll's Gram._, p. 264. Now Murray and Ingersoll here _mean_
precisely the same thing! Whose fault is that? If Murray's, he has
committed many such. But, in this matter, he is contradicted not only by
Ingersoll, but, on one occasion, by himself. For he declares it to be an
opinion in which he concurs. "That the definition and nature of the
subjunctive mood, have _no reference_ to change of termination."--_Murray's
Gram._, 8vo, p. 211. And yet, amidst his strange blunders, he seems to have
ascribed the _meaning_ which a verb has in this mood, _to the inflections_
which it receives _in the indicative_: saying. "That part of the verb which
grammarians call the present tense of the subjunctive mood, has a future
signification. _This_ is effected by _varying the terminations_ of the
second and third persons singular of _the indicative_!"--_Ib._, p. 207. But
the absurdity which he really means to teach, is, that the subjunctive mood
_is derived from the indicative_,--the primitive or radical verb, _from
it's derivatives or branches_!

[262] _Wert_ is sometimes used in lieu of _wast_; and, in such instances,
both by authority and by analogy, it appears to belong here, if anywhere.
See OBS. 2d and 3d, below.

[263] Some grammarians, regardless of the general usage of authors, prefer
_was_ to _were_ in the singular number of this tense of the subjunctive
mood. In the following remark, the tense is named "_present_" and this
preference is urged with some critical extravagance: "_Was_, though the
past tense of the indicative