In the older stages of the Gothic languages the word had both a full conjugation and a regular one. In Anglo-Saxon it had an infinitive, a participle present, and a participle past. In Mœso-Gothic it was inflected throughout with -s; as _visa_, _vas_, _vêsum_, _visans_. In that language it has the power of the Latin _maneo_ = _to remain_. The r first appears in the Old High German, _wisu_, _was_, _wârumés_, _wësaner_. In Norse the s _entirely_ disappears, and the word is inflected with r throughout; _vera_, _var_, _vorum_, &c. § 338. _Be_ is inflected in Anglo-Saxon throughout the present tense, both indicative and subjunctive. It is found also as an infinitive, _beón_; as a gerund, _to beonne_; and as a participle, _beonde_; in the present English its inflection is as follows: _Present._ _Conjunctive._ | _Imperative._ _Sing._ _Plur._ | _Sing._ _Plur._ Be Be. | -- -- -- -- | Be Be Be Be | -- -- _Infin._ To be. _Pres. P._ Being. _Past. Part._ Been. § 339. The line in Milton beginning _If thou beest he_--(P. L. b. ii.), leads to the notion that the antiquated form _beest_ is not indicative, but conjunctive. Such, however, is not the case: _byst_ in Anglo-Saxon is indicative, the conjunctive form being _beó_. _And every thing that pretty bin_ (Cymbeline).--Here the word _bin_ is the conjunctive plural, in Anglo-Saxon _beón_; so that the words _every thing_ are to be considered equivalent to the plural form _all things_. The phrase in Latin would stand thus, _quotquot pulchra sint_; in Greek, thus, ἁ ἂν κάλα ᾖ. The _indicative_ plural is, in Anglo-Saxon, not _beón_, but _beóð_ and _beó_. § 340. In the "Deutsche Grammatik" it is stated that the Anglo-Saxon forms _beô_, _bist_, _bið_, _beoð_, or _beó_, have not a present but a _future_ sense; that whilst _am_ means _I am_, _beó_ means _I shall be_; and that in the older languages it is only where the form _am_ is not found that _be_ has the power of a present form. The same root occurs in the Slavonic and Lithuanic tongues with the same power; as, _esmi_ = _I am_; _búsu_ = _I shall be_, Lithuanic. _Esmu_ = _I am_; _buhshu_ = _I shall be_, Livonic.--_Jesm_ = _I am_; _budu_ = _I shall be_, Slavonic.--_Gsem_ = _I am_; _budu_ = _I shall be_, Bohemian. This, however, proves, not that there is in Anglo-Saxon a future tense, but that the word _beó_ has a future sense. There is no fresh tense where there is no fresh form.