PREFACE. SOME years ago I found myself discussing with an accomplished French lady the various intricacies of 66 shall" and "will." The result of that conversation was, that I amused myself by putting together the remarks which I had met with, or which suggested themselves, on the subject of these puzzling auxiliaries. The two chapters now laid before the reader make no pretension to originality or profound research; they owe their origin to the discussion mentioned above, and they might have been better worth reading if I had, whilst writing them, had constant access to a large philological library. For the speculations in some of the notes I must ask indulgence. E. W. H. |