24 Aug. 1813

Logic

3

Ch. Language-Grammar

Conjugation, Grammar

3

When the person by whose agency it is supposed that the event, or state of things in question would be produced, is a person to whom the discourse is addressed, the relation borne to him, in the order of power, by him who speaks, may either be that of a superior, that of an equal, or that of an inferior. It is in that case alone in which the relation borne by him, as above, is that of a superior, nor in that, but when the superiority is so marked /decided/ and acknowledged as to give to the expression of his wish, so denoted, the character and denomination of a command, that the term imperative can with propriety be applied to it.

It is when the person by whose agency it is desired that the event, or state of things in question should be produced is the Almighty, that the imperfection and absurdity of this denomination presents itself in a striking point of view. Grant us, O Lord ! Hear us, O Lord ! Taken in themselves, and without a thought bestowed upon the grammarians by whom a common appellation has been bestowed upon these forms, there is nothing to which any such idea as that of impropriety appears to attach itself. But when to such a form of speech, when to any form of speech, addressed to a person conceived to be in such a situation, any such appellation as that of imperative is applied, then it is that the impropriety - and that rising to a degree of absurdity, involving a virtual contradiction in terms, may be seen to manifest itself beyond dispute.

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