am_, _be['o]_ means _I shall be_;
and that in the older languages it is only where the form _am_ is not found
that _be_ has the power of a present form. The same root occurs in the
Slavonic and Lithuanic tongues with the same power; as, _esmi_ = _I am_;
_b['u]su_ = _I shall be_, Lithuanic. _Esmu_ = _I am_; _buhshu_ = _I shall
be_, Livonic.--_Jesm_ = _I am_; _budu_ = _I shall be_, Slavonic.--_Gsem_ =
_I am_; _budu_ = _I shall be_, Bohemian. This, however, proves, not that
there is in Anglo-Saxon a future tense, but that the word _be['o]_ has a
future sense. There is no fresh tense where there is no fresh form.

The following is a specimen of the future power of _be['o]n_ in
Anglo-Saxon:--_"Hi ne _be['o]dh_ na c['i]lde, sodhlice, on domesdaege, ac
_be['o]dh_ swa micele menn swa swa hi migton be['o]n gif hi full weoxon on
gewunlicre ylde."_--Aelfric's Homilies. "They _will not be_ children,
forsooth, on Domesday, but _will be_ as much (so muckle) men as they might
be if they were full grown (waxen) in customary age."

s. 341. Now, if we consider the word _be['o]n_ like the word _weordhan_
(see s. 343) to mean not so much _to be_ as to _become_, we get an element
of the idea of futurity. Things which are _becoming anything_ have yet
something further to either do or suffer. Again, from the idea of futurity
we get the idea of contingency, and this explains the subjunctive power of
_be_. In English we often say _may_ for _shall_, and the same was done in
Anglo-Saxon.

s. 342. _Am_.--Of this form it should be stated that the letter -m is no
part of the original word. It is the sign of the first person, just as it
is in _Greek_, and several other languages.

It should also be stated, that although the fact be obscured, and although
the changes be insufficiently accounted for, the forms _am_, _art_, _are_,
and _is_, are not, like _am_ and _was_, parts of different words, but forms
of one and the same word; in other terms, that, although between _am_ and
_be_ there is no etymological connexion, there is one between _am_ and
_is_. This we collect from the comparison of the Indo-European languages.

1. 2. 3.
Sanskrit _Asmi_ _Asi_ _Asti_.
Zend _Ahmi_ _Asi_ _Ashti_.
Greek [Greek: Eimi] [Greek: Eis] [Greek: Esti].
Latin _Sum_ _Es_ _Est_.
Lithuanic _Esmi_ _Essi_