seems to violate the ordinary idiom. Its use, however, admits of explanation, and probably means that the King was obliged, notwithstanding his prejudices, to entertain the feeling which he describes : he knew that such a feeling was unreasonable. It might perhaps again be supposed that, writing as the Sovereign constantly does, formally in the third person, though virtually in the first, he employed the form properly used with the latter to convey the simple future. Thus Westmoreland, in the Third Part of Henry VI. (act i. sc. 1), speaking of himself, says, "He is both king and duke of Lancaster, "And that the lord of Westmoreland shall maintain." So again, in Troilus and Cressida (act i. sc. 3), Nestor replies to Agamemnon,— "Great Agamemnon-Nestor shall apply Compare in Julius Cæsar (act ii. sc. 2),— "No, Cæsar shall not." I confess, however, I think the second explanation of George III.'s letter less plausible than the first. Again, when Boswell 17 was discussing the fate of Hackman, who murdered Miss Ray, and mentioned the criminal's prayer for the mercy of Heaven, Dr. Johnson is reported to have replied, "I hope he 17 Croker's edition (Murray, 1835), vol. vii. p. 258. The reader may attach what value he pleases to the fact that Boswell, who reports the conversation, was more or less Scotch. "shall find mercy." If he had used "will," the sentence would have expressed a mere conjectural hope of an undecided future; but Johnson was speaking of something already concluded by the fiat of an Almighty Judge, though the nature of the decision was unknown to the speaker, and could not be controlled by him. The sentence is equivalent to, "I hope he is destined to find mercy." On this principle, "shall" is the proper auxiliary for prophecy when predicting events predetermined and foreknown. It is not necessary that the speaker should profess to control the event himself; but he speaks of it as something due, and therefore naturally denoted by a word which originally means "to owe." 18 Thus in Richard II. (act i. sc. 3) Norfolk predicts the result of Bolingbroke's ambition :· But what thou art Heaven, thou, and I do know, "And all too soon, I fear, the king shall rue." In the following predictions both "shall" and "will" are employed : "The time shall come-thus did he follow it- 2 Hen. IV., act iii. sc. 1. In the magnificent curse of the Duchess of York on Richard III. (act iv. sc. 4) the prophecy is, as it were, in the alternative, and the verbs are used as pure futures: 18 See below, p. 76. "Either thou wilt die by God's just ordinance Again towards the end she says, "Bloody thou art-bloody will be thy end." Buttmann 19 remarks truly that the forms of expression which belong to a supreme power when ordaining, and the forms which announce, on divine authority, the existence of such ordinance, are often one and the same. 20 In all such cases "shall" is not to be taken as the mere sign of the future tense. I do not know whether the vexed question of the authorship of the Vestiges of Creation' has ever been conclusively settled.21 There is a passage in that work which has always appeared to me to favour the notion that it was written by a native of Scotland or Ireland rather than by an Englishman. The words are as follows: 66 6 "I do not expect that any word of praise which "this work may elicit shall ever be responded to by me, or that any word of censure shall ever be parried or deprecated." Now, if the sentence had run thus:"No word of praise, &c., shall ever be responded to by me, and no word of censure shall 66 19 Lexilogus, b. i. s. 127, in v. Τέκμωρ. 20 See especially the passage quoted in Appendix (G) from Henry VIII. (act v. sc. 4.) 21 Since this passage was written I have seen it confidently stated that the book was composed by Mr. Robert Chambers. (?) The words occur in the "Note Conclusory," p. 410. ever be parried," it would simply have expressed, in ordinary English, the author's determination to abstain from doing that which he might do if he pleased; but the neutral word "expect" requires the dependent verbs to carry with them the notion of simple futurity. The writer is not talking of what he has determined to do, but of what he anticipates will happen; and therefore "shall" strikes an English ear as a violation of the common idiom. I profess myself wholly unable to explain the use of “should” in the following passage of the Merchant of Venice (act i. sc. 2). Nerissa is made to say to Portia, "If he should offer to choose, and choose "the right casket, you should refuse to perform "your father's will if you should refuse to accept "him." The first and third "should," following "if," are perfectly correct, on principles which will be explained hereafter; but the second is unintelligible. The sense of compulsion or necessity is inconsistent with the meaning; and we should at any rate expect "shall." On the whole I am inclined to believe that it is one of the many misprints in the text of Shakspere, and that the error of the press has been facilitated by the occurrence of "would" between two "shoulds." The proper use of "shall" is well shown by such passages as the following: "What think you of this fool Malvolio? doth he not "mend? "Yes, and shall do till the pangs of death shake him: In"firmity, that decays the wise, doth ever make the better fool." Twelfth Night, act i. sc. 5. That is to say, the law of nature is such as to make this the necessary course of things. "I have a venturous fairy that shall seek “The squirrel's hoard and fetch thee new nuts.” Mids. Night's Dream, act iv. sc. 1. In this case the fairy is the servant of Titania, and "shall” implies the speaker's control over the act to be done. So again in the same play, when Bottom is giving directions as manager (act iv. sc. 4): "In any case let Thisby have clean linen, and let not him that plays the lion pare his nails, for they shall hang out for the lion's claws" i. e. such is their proper duty. Juliet expounds the principle in the clearest form when Paris asks her to fix the day for the wedding : "That may be, must be, love, on Thursday next”— to which she answers : "What must be, shall be '—that's a certain text.” Act iv. sc. 1. Another use of "shall," which is apparently anomalous, meets us in such sentences as the following one of Theodore Hook.22 Gilbert Gurney, after 22 Gilbert Gurney, vol. iii. c. 2. I believe that in Scotland "will" is used in a manner analogous to the use of "shall" referred to in the text; that is to say, it is employed to express a result, where no future sense is obvious at first sight, but where the fact is matter of inference. "That will be my book," |