Lifer.

Dickens Gr. Exp. I, 304: he was tried again for prison breaking, and got made a Lifer, einer, der zu lebenslänglicher Transportation verurtheilt ist. cf. Sala Baddington Peerage ed. Dürr II, 60: if he isn't a lifer this time etc.

life-belt, Macm. Mag. June 1860 p. 118, wol nur ein anderer Ausdruck für life-buoy bei L.; besonders häufig auf den amerikan. Flussdampfböten, wegen Gefahr durch die snags. Es giebt verschiedene Arten, z. B. solche, die wie eine Unterjacke angezogen werden, aber doppelt und luftdicht sind, so dass sie zu Luftkissen aufgeblasen werden können; andere bestehen aus einem Ringe mit einer Stange daran, die eine sich selbst entzündende Laterne trägt.

lift. to give sombody a 1. auch: Jemanden, den man unterwegs trifft, auf seinen Wagen mit aufsitzen lassen. Bulwer My Nov. I, 170 und oft sonst üblich.

lig-lagger. M'Levy Curios. of Crime, 106: sometimes I saw him lig-laggering with women, schwatzen.

light-of-love, eine leichte Dirne, oft bei Scott, z. B. Fort. of Nig. III, 74, 96; cf. M'Levy Curios. of Crime, 107.

light. Macm. Mag. Dec. 1860 p. 103. Taking a cigar-case out of his pocket and lighting up = lighting the cigar.

lines, zu Arch. XXX, 132, cf. auch: Macm. Mag. Jan. 1861 p. 195: it's hard lines, to ...

lip, v. Leighton, Cur. stor. Trad. p. 25: the cup is lipping. little Sunday that's Monday. M'Levy Curios. of Cr., 104. corporation.

livery, v.

loam. hat auch die Bedeutung von 'humus', Silas Marner p. 23. that habit of looking towards the money and grasping it with a sense of fulfilled effort made a loam that was deep enough for the seeds of desire.

Novels and

long-division, wir nennen es Schwanzdivision. Tales repr. fr. Househ. W. p. I, 7. The Lord Chancellor observed that it would be impossible to be done in the course of the present session. He was therefore of opinion to allow him a long-month, namely until the second day of the next session of parliament (Trial of Warren Hastings).

the long-room (in an inn), Novels and Tales fr. Househ. W. 1856 II, 278 alter Name für den Speisesaal.

long-shore boat builders.

Dickens Gr. Exp. II, 172, cf. Novels and Tales fr. Househ. W. III, 299: a pack of long-shore lubbers. Aus along sh. entstanden, bezeichnet Flussschiffer im Gegensatz zu den Seeleuten.

look, v. to look at one's little finger = to drink. s. I think the picture has a great look of you. Aehnlichkeit. Semi-Att. Couple II, 62. Nicht eben elegant.

loose. there is an idea running loose about the world that etc. Rita p. 371; Eliot Mill on the Fl. I, 14, von einem Knaben: I shall let him run loose for a quarter, frei herumlaufen lassen, um ihn dann in eine neue Pension zu bringen. (cf. Arch. XXX, p. 133.)· - 'Sword and Gown' p. 30. that tremendous philosopher, supposing that he were turned loose among a bevy of perfectly well educated

women etc.

looting s. Arch. XXX, 133. cf. Macm. Mag. May 1861 p. 57. love. Dickens Christm. Car. p. 54: she joined in the forfeits, and loved her love to admiration with all the letters of the alphabet. Ein Pfänderspiel. Einer aus der Gesellschaft beginnt mit irgend einem Buchstaben, etwa: I love my love with an A because she is amiable, and I hate my love with an A because she is avaricious, ruft dann einen Mitspieler und giebt ihm zugleich einen Buchstaben, um in gleicher Weise fortzufahren: kann derselbe dies nicht, so muss er ein Pfand geben.

lovely. everybody is lovely to somebody, says the proverb, A Life for a Life I,

6.

low and slow, v. Arch. XXX, 128 unter high and dry, wozu jenes der Gegensatz. Quarterly Rev. Oct. 1860 p. 496: that variety of 'evangelical' clergymen to which the late Mr. Conybeare gave the name of low and slow' a variety which, we believe, flourishes

chiefly in the midland counties.

low-bosomed dresses, ausgeschnitten, Novels and Tales fr. Household W. I, 129.

Lud. Scott Fort. of Nig. II, 148 ed. Schles. Tut, man, it was only in the days of King Arthur or King Lud that a gentleman was

held to blemish his scutcheon by a leap over the line of reason or honesty. Fabelhafter König, dessen Name noch in dem Namen Ludgate erhalten sein soll.

lumber. A Life for a Life I, 291 the three drawing-rooms where L. and I spend our mornings amidst a labyrinth of costly lumber-sofas, tables and chairs. Bedeutet wol nur, dass die Möbel so dicht stehen wie in einer Polterkammer.

Berlin.

Dr. Hoppe.

Notes on English Grammar.

Read before the Liverpool Literary and Philosophical Society,
9th February, 1863.

The Future Tense.

No Teutonic language has a simple Future Tense, formed by inflexion from the stem of the verb, like the Future of the Greek, the Latin, and the Romance languages. "There is," says Archdeacon Hare (Philological Museum, vol. ii, p. 218), “an awful, irrepressible, and almost instinctive consciousness of the uncertainty of the Future, and of our own powerlessness over it, which in all cultivated languages has silently and imperceptibly modified the mode of expression with regard to it." Whether this feeling of awe is the real cause of the original want of a Future Tense in certain languages, I do not venture to decide. In Hebrew and Welsh, at any rate, such a feeling could not operate; for there we have a Future, and we lack that Tense which seems the most real of all, viz., the Present. The conception of Futurity cannot be avoided by the rudest of men, and the want of an adequate expression of it is nothing but a defect, which, in the advancing culture of a language, cannot fail to be perceived and to be rectified.

The English language has now a composite Future which may be said to answer all practical purposes. It is formed by the Infinitive of the verb, and one or the other of the two verbs shall and will used as auxiliaries. In principal affirmative sentences, shall is used in the first person, both singular and plural, and will with the second and third persons, as

I shall sail, thou wilt sail, he will sail.
We shall sail, ye will sail, they will sail.

In interrogative sentences, shall is used for the first and second perBons,) and will only for the third, as

In the second person there is by no means a perfect agreement. Many usewill invariably, and cannot be made to see the difference between volition and simple Futurity, which indeed, in some cases, are hardly distinguishable. W. Rushton, Professor of English at Cork (Queen's University), gives (in a private communication) the Interrogative Future as, wilt thou,

Shall I sail? shalt thou sail? will he sail?

Shall we sail? shall ye sail? will they sail?

In secondary sentences, the use of shall and will is not quite so clear; at least, in the second and third persons, shall and will are both used, and sometimes indifferently, as

(If, that, because, &c.) I shall sail, thou shalt or wilt sail, he shall or will sail.

We shall sail, ye shall or will sail, they shall or will sail.

If

The reason why, in secondary sentences, there is some uncertainty in the use of shall and will is partly to be found in the fact, that in such sentences we very generally avoid employing the Future Tense, and use the Present instead. For instance If you shall sail to-morrow, I shall not see you again. This is quite correct, but we almost invariably say you sail to-morrow, I shall not see you again. The verb of the principal sentence is sufficient to extend the conception of Futurity to the secondary verb, which, consequently, can be left in the simple form of the present. Now, as compound Tenses are always clumsy and heavy, we avail ourselves whenever we can of the opportunity of using the present in secondary sentences, and hence, the feeling which imperatively decides in other sentences between shall and will, could not grow to sufficient strength in the case of secondary sentences, and form a clear law of language. *)

I have said that the English Future answers all practical purposes. By saying that, I do not mean, however, that it is perfect. In the first place, a compound Tense is lumbering, slow, and weak, compared with one formed by internal organic change of the root or by termination. "Dedissem" is a more forcible expression than "I should have given;" but this inferiority of the English Future, compared with the Latin or French, is of comparatively little moment. We get accustomed to look upon compound tenses, and to pronounce them, almost as if they were simple; so that often the difference is more a matter of spelling than formation.**) But a material objection to the English Future lies in this, that the verbs shall and will have not entirely lost their original signification, and that, therefore, in many instances, the idea of simple Futurity is troubled and obscured by the admixture of the idea of volition or compulsion. This could easily be avoided if we agreed to restrict shall and will to their auxiliary functions in the

will you, which, he says, simply ask for information. It is true, he gives shalt thou, shall you also, but seems to make no distinction between the use of shall and will in the second person of the interrogative verb.

*) In the conditional future should and would are employed as follows 1st. In principal sentences, I should, thou wouldst, he would, &c. 2nd. In interrogative sentences, Should I, wouldst thou, would he? 3rd. In secondary sentences, If I should, if thou shouldst, if he should.

**) The French Future is compounded with the infinitive, and the verb avoir, only the French do not spell je parler ai, tu parler as, il parler a, but je parlerai, tu parleras, il parlera.