subject, an idea of it more special to the subject than the former; the one being the process which the subject realises, the other the process of the realisation. This last, however, is thought with sufficient strength for expression only when the subject is singular. The different subjectivities when the subject is dual or plural confuse and weaken the thought of it so as to suppress its expression, except in the first person of the imperative mood, in which the appeal to self maintains the energy of the person in the dual and plural as well as in the singular. In the second singular of the imperative the emphasis of address to the single person takes the place of the expression of the person and of the subjective energy. Moreover, it is only in the Parasmai or active that this subjective process is expressed. In the middle or passive there is not enough volition in the subject to maintain it, except in the imperative mood, in which the first person has it in all the voices.

Now, this subjective process can affect the root only when the person is in immediate contact with the root; but it then Gunates the radical vowel, except in the seventh conjugation, in which it changes the n to na. Neither can it affect a immediately preceding the person (15), nor ē, nor ya of the potential, but it Gunates nu of the fifth conjugation and u of the eighth, changes ni or n of the ninth to na, and it preserves final a in the third conjugation, which, before the other persons, is dropped or shortened or reduced to i. For sometimes when the radical vowel cannot be Gunated, being long by nature or position, the strengthening of the root appears in preserving it unmutilated.2

17. When the conjugational a precedes m, n, or v of the first person, it is lengthened both in active and middle; but the first singular imperfect active has short a before m in all the conjugations. This a belongs to the person, and expresses the consciousness of self, as in aham, I. The conjugational a is the process of what the verbal stem denotes, and it is dropped in the first singular imperfect, perhaps because in it the verb is more merged in the subject than in the other persons, being a remembrance of self alone. In the first singular of the present there is a strong sense of the process, and this is maintained in the first dual and plural of the present, and also of the imperfect, by the person or persons associated with self; so that in all these persons the conjugational a is retained, as it is also in the first person of the imperative, on account of the strength with which the external fact is thought when made the aim of an imperative appeal. Now a, expressive of the consciousness of self, belongs properly to the first dual and plural as well as to the first singular; but in the dual and plural it is not strong enough to make itself felt in expression as a distinct element, except in the imperative, in which it is expressed and lengthened in all the conjugations, numbers, and voices by the emphasis of hortatory appeal. In the other parts of the verb it is only when preceded by the conjugational a that it comes out as a lengthening of a. The potential intercepts this influence. of a on the first person, by interposing its own formative element.

1 Williams, pp. 110, 111, 130.

2 Ibid. p. 123.

18. The potential element in those conjugations whose stem ends in a, is i, which combines with a and forms ē; in the other conjugations it is ya. It has been stated in 3 that i, as compared with a, is suggestive of weakness or absence of force. And accordingly the fourth conjugation in ya has generally a neuter significance. The potential expresses a weaker sense of realisation than the other parts, being only ideal, and it weakens the verbal process a by mingling with it . The other conjugations subjoin ya, increasing the effect i of i by the long vowel (3), probably because their process is weaker, and consequently the thought of them as ideal is an element more remote from realisation than that which is proper to the a- conjugations. The first singular retains its a after the potential e, on account of the subjective sense of self in an ideal being or doing of self alone, euphonic y being interposed, -eyam; but ya swallows it.

19. The conjugational parts of the verb have each two sets of person endings, one for the Parasmai or active, the other for the Atmanē or middle. They are as on the opposite page,1 those of the potential including the potential element.

This system of person endings suggests speculations explanatory of them, which for the most part can be regarded only as hypothetical.

The element of the first person in the singular and in the plural is m, but in the dual it is v. In the plural self is combined with a plurality, which is a less distinct element than the second personality associated with it in the dual, and therefore leaves the sense of self more distinct (14, Sect. V. 59, 60). Hence perhaps it is that the element of the first singular remains in the plural, but is lost in a less definite utterance in the dual. In the singular the consciousness of self being stronger than in the dual or plural is more apt, as has been said (17), to express itself by initial a, as may be seen in the imperfect and potential, but this does not appear in the present, in which mi has no a preceding it in the conjugations which do not subjoin a to the root. The cause is that the final i expressing the present engagement of the person expresses the consciousness of self, and leaves the latent a no stronger than it is in the dual or plural to make itself felt only in lengthening conjugational a (17).

The element of the second person in the singular and throughout the present of Parasmai has more breath than the third, because the thought of the second person involves more sense of its subjective life than the thought of the third; but this difference vanishes in the dual and plural of the potential imperative and imperfect of Parasmai, because in these the persons have less subjective life, being not actually engaged, and being thought with others. In Atmane, however, the above difference between the element of the second person and that of the third prevails throughout, for in Atmane the being or doing abides in the subject, and this causes the person to be thought with a fuller sense of its subjective life.

In the dual of the present of Parasmai there is a sense of the individuals expressed by s, and in the first plural this is maintained by

1 Williams, pp. 105, 106.

the distinction between self and the associated individuals, but in the second plural it disappears, the plurality being expressed only by a, as significant of extension without a sense of the individuals; and in the third plural, which is thought less distinctly, this extension, like the plural in neuter nouns (14), enters into the person which is thought as an aggregate denoted by n, and becomes so objective that it has to be quickened by i as an element external to it. In the third conjugation the reduplication at the beginning causes an abbreviation at the end, and n is dropped in the present and imperative. The reduced sense of the individuals in the dual and plural person endings compared with what it is in dual and plural nouns and pronouns, arises from the subjective connection of the former with the verb, which weakens the thought of their objective element or substance (Def. 4, 14).

20. In Atmane the person endings are relaxed with long vowels (3) and with a relaxed utterance of the consonants, because the being or doing is thought as abiding quiescent in the subject. In the first singular the m, which is especially liable to be vocalised by reason of its natural connection with a as mentioned above (11), melts away altogether, and in the present the vowels coalesce in e, which, uttered with the quiescence of a long vowel, takes the place of i of Parasmai, and is used in the dual and plural of the present as well as in the singular to express the quiescent engagement of the persons. In the first dual and plural of the present the s is relaxed to h, but in the second and third dual the sense of the individual substances which is in Parasmai is lost in Atmane owing to the increased subjectivity and the consequent weakening of the substance, and the duality becomes an extension of the personality. This after the stronger process of the -a conjugations seems to retain more sense of duality than in the other conjugations, and is expressed in the former by i, which combines with the a into ē, while in the latter it is mere extension ā. In the second plural the plurality enters into the person and gets a diffused expression as d'w, both elements of which belong to the second person. And in the third plural the sense of a continuous aggregate which is expressed by an is so objective that it is weakened in Atmanē, and a is dropped when it is preceded by conjugational a, and n is dropped in the other conjugations.

21. The person endings singular of the potential and imperfect of Parasmai drop the -i of present engagement, and being thought with less distinctness than in the present, they have less sense of the individuals, dual and plural. The first person dual and plural drops 8 on account of the predominant sense of self, and the second and third dual are each massed together by m, there being more sense of the double substance in the more objective third person, and therefore more expression of extension in the long vowel. The third plural after dropping the -i of present engagement would become ant; but in the third conjugation which has the reduplication, and probably thinks the verb in the totality of its process (16), the person is still less subjective, the realisation being more complete, and the more objective plural s is taken, an reduced to u, and ti dropped. In all the conjugations the weak subjective realisation of the potential had

a similar effect, making the third plural in -us; and sometimes optionally in the second conjugation, final ā of the root had the same effect in the imperfect,' by suppressing the a of the person and making the person more objective. But even without those influences, the stronger ending -ant dropped its t because two consonants are not tolerated at the end of a word.

22. The potential element in Atmanē is ī, which corresponds to its quiescent character and consequent love of long vowels; after this ī the first singular has a, the m being dropped, but in the first dual and plural of the potential, and throughout the first person of the imperfect, the engagement of the subject, which in the present is ē, is reduced to i.

Even in the third singular potential and imperfect of Atmane, there is an element of engagement of the subject due to the act or state being thought as abiding in the subject, and this is expressed by a. But in the more subjective second person this is taken into the person and more fully expressed in its own nature by a, and in its abiding in the person by being included within a kind of reduplication of the person between t and s, suggested perhaps by the thought of the person as subject and object.

The second and third dual potential and imperfect of Atmanē are each massed together by m as they are in Parasmai, but Atmanē, according to its nature, gives a long vowel to both of them, significant of the act or state abiding in them.

The potential also prefixes iya before both in all the conjugations; whereas the imperfect, like the present, prefixes è to them in the -a conjugations, and a in the others.

The second plural potential and imperfect has a double expression as well as the second singular. The element d'w already involves plurality as appears from the present. But in the potential and imperfect the persons have less life than in the present, and consequently, the thought of them as object tends more than in the present to make itself felt along with the thought of them as subject, and in this aspect the plurality is thought again as an aggregate expressed by m. The third plural, which in the imperfect changes è of the present to a, in the potential puts t before an, and softens it to r under the influence of the vowels, thereby getting rid of a syllable from the form burdened with 7.

23. In the imperative the persons are objects of a command, and this diminishes the sense of their intrinsic life. The first singular after the appeal to conscious self expressed by a is weakened to ni. The second singular in the a conjugations is overpowered by the energy of the commanded process a; in the other conjugations it is weakened to hi or d'i. The third person both in the singular and plural receives force, expressed by u, rather than gives it (V. 54); -tat, which, like -t'ās, is quiescent and object as well as subject (see above), is sometimes substituted for -hi and -tu, and even for -ta to imply benediction, chiefly in the Vedas.

1 Bopp, Vergl. Gram., sect. 462.