The following is a specimen of the future power of _beón_ in Anglo-Saxon:--_"Hi ne _beóð_ na cílde, soðlice, on domesdæge, ac _beóð_ swa micele menn swa swa hi migton beón gif hi full weoxon on gewunlicre ylde."_--Ælfric's Homilies. "They _will not be_ children, forsooth, on Domesday, but _will be_ as much (so muckle) men as they might be if they were full grown (waxen) in customary age." § 341. Now, if we consider the word _beón_ like the word _weorðan_ (see § 343) to mean not so much _to be_ as to _become_, we get an element of the idea of futurity. Things which are _becoming anything_ have yet something further to either do or suffer. Again, from the idea of futurity we get the idea of contingency, and this explains the subjunctive power of _be_. In English we often say _may_ for _shall_, and the same was done in Anglo-Saxon. § 342. _Am_.--Of this form it should be stated that the letter -m is no part of the original word. It is the sign of the first person, just as it is in _Greek_, and several other languages. It should also be stated, that although the fact be obscured, and although the changes be insufficiently accounted for, the forms _am_, _art_, _are_, and _is_, are not, like _am_ and _was_, parts of different words, but forms of one and the same word; in other terms, that, although between _am_ and _be_ there is no etymological connexion, there is one between _am_ and _is_. This we collect from the comparison of the Indo-European languages. 1. 2. 3. Sanskrit _Asmi_ _Asi_ _Asti_. Zend _Ahmi_ _Asi_ _Ashti_. Greek Εἰμί Εἴς Ἐστί. Latin _Sum_ _Es_ _Est_. Lithuanic _Esmi_ _Essi_ _Esti_. Old Slavonic _Yesmy_ _Yesi_ _Yesty_. Mœso-Gothic _Im_ _Is_ _Ist_. Old Saxon -- [63]_Is_ _Ist_. Anglo-Saxon _Eom_ _Eart_ _Is_. Icelandic _Em_ _Ert_ _Er_. English _Am_ _Art_ _Is_. § 343. _Worth_.--In the following lines of Scott, the word _worth_ = _is_, and is a fragment of the regular Anglo-Saxon verb _weorðan_ = _to be_, or _to become_; German _werden_. Woe _worth_ the chase, woe _worth_ the day, That cost thy life, my gallant grey.--_Lady of the Lake._ * * * * * CHAPTER XXIX. THE PRESENT PARTICIPLE.