This theory derives great strength from analizing the words called _conjunctions_. It will perhaps surprize those who have not attended to this subject, to hear it asserted, that the little conjunction _if_, is a _verb_ in the Imperative Mode. That this is the fact can no more be controverted than any point of history, or any truth that our senses present to the mind. _If_ is radically the same word as _give_; it was in the Saxon Infinitive, _gifan_, and in the Imperative, like other Saxon verbs, lost the _an_; being written _gif_. This is the word in its purity; but in different dialects of the same radical tongue, we find it written _gife_, _giff_, _gi_, _yf_, _yef_, and _yeve_. Chaucer used _y_ instead of _g_.[88] "Unto the devil rough and blake of hewe _Yeve_ I thy body and my panne also." Freres Tale, 7204. But the true Imperative is _gif_, as in the Sad Shepherd. Act 2. Sc. 2. ----"My largesse Hath lotted her to be your brother's mistress _Gif_ she can be reclaimed; _gif_ not, his prey." This is the origin of the conjunction _if_; and it answers, in sense and derivation to the Latin _si_, which is but a contraction of _sit_. Thus what we denominate the Subjunctive mode is resolvable into the Indicative. "_If_ ye love me, ye will keep my commandments," is resolvable in this manner; "Give, (give the following fact, or suppose it) ye love me, ye will keep my commandments." Or thus, "Ye love me, give that, ye will keep my commandments." But on this I shall be more particular when I come to speak of errors in the use of verbs. _An_ is still vulgarly used in the sense of _if_. "_An_ please your honor," is the usual address of servants to their masters in England; tho it is lost in New England. But a word derived from the same root, is still retained; viz. the Saxon _anan_, to give; which is sometimes pronounced _nan_, and sometimes _anan_. It is used for _what_, or _what do you say_; as when a person speaks to another, the second person not hearing distinctly, replies, _nan_, or _anan_; that is, _give_ or _repeat_ what you said. This is ridiculed as a gross vulgarism; and it is indeed obsolete except among common people; but is strictly correct, and if persons deride the use of the word, it proves at least that they do not understand its meaning. Unless, _lest_ and _else_, are all derivatives of the old Saxon verb _lesan_, _to dismiss_, which we preserve in the word _lease_, and its compounds. So far are these words from being conjunctions, that they are, in fact, verbs in the Imperative mode; and this explanation serves further to lay open the curious structure of our language. For example: