But if I am certain I do not possess the book, the reply is different; "I have not the book you mention; if I _had_, it should be at your master's service." Both these forms of speaking are correct; but the question is, what is the difference? It cannot be in _time_; for both refer to the same. The ideas both respect present time; "If I _have_ it _now_, it _shall_ be at your master's service"--"If I _had_ it _now_, it _should_ be." The distinction in the meaning is universally understood, and is simply this; the first expresses _uncertainty_; the last implies _certainty_, but in a peculiar manner; for an affirmative sentence implies a positive negation; and a negative sentence implies a positive affirmation. Thus, _if I had the book_, implies a positive denial of having it; _if I had not the book_, implies that I have it: And both speak of possessing or not possessing it at this _present_ time. The same distinction runs thro all the verbs in the language. A man, shut up in an interior apartment, would say to his friend, "_if it rains_ you cannot go home." This would denote the speaker's uncertainty. But on coming to the door and ascertaining the fact, he would say, "_if it rain__ed_, you should not go;" or, "_if it did not rain_, you might go." Can these verbs be in _past_ time? By no means; _if it did not rain now, you could go_, is present, for the present existence of the fact prevents the man from going. These forms of speech are established by unanimous consent in practice. "It remaineth that they who have wives, be as tho they _had_ none, and they that weep, as tho they _wept_ not; and they that rejoice, as tho they _rejoiced_ not; and they that buy, as tho they _possessed_ not."----1 Cor. vii. 29, 30.[116] "Nay, and the villains march wide betwixt the legs, as if they _had_ gyves on."----1 Henry IV. "We have not these antiquities; and if _we had_ them, they would add to our uncertainty."----Bolingbroke on Hist. let. 3. "Whereas, _had_ I (if I had) still the same woods to range in, which I once _had_, when I was a fox hunter, I should not resign my manhood for a maintenance."----Spect. No. 14. "I confess I have not great taste for poetry; but if _I had_, I am apt to believe I should read none but Mr. Pope's."[117]---- Shenstone on Men and Manners. Whatever these verbs may be in declaratory phrases, yet after the conditional conjunctions _if_ and _tho_, they often express present ideas, as in the foregoing examples. In such cases, this form of the verb may be denominated the _hypothetical_ present tense. This would distinguish it from the same form, when it expresses uncertainty in the past time; for this circumstance must not be passed without notice. Thus, "If he _had_ letters by the last mail," denotes the speaker's uncertainty as to a past fact or event. But, "if _he had_ a book, he would lend it," denotes a present certainty that he has it not. The times referred to are wholly distinct.